Link to the 11th chapter :
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A/N : I’m making a few changes in the timeline as I realized the dates that I mentioned previously weren’t working out : –
• Edit 1 – Chapter 5 : Vansh died in October 2020.
• Edit 2 – Chapter 7 & Chapter 8 : The 1st and 2nd video sessions were held in February 2020.
The 3rd and 4th video sessions were held in March 2020.
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“Not so soon, Vihaan. Not so soon,” Ajay smirked while keeping his revolver right at the back of Vihaan’s head.
Vihaan went completely still, while Riddhima gaped in horror.
“One trigger, and his skull will burst open. Do you want that Riddhima?” asked Ajay.
“No,” she mumbled fearfully.
“Then go and sit on that chair. Right now!” Ajay ordered her while the revolver still hovered over Vihaan.
When Riddhima did not pay heed to him, Ajay growled. “Listen to whatever I say if you don’t want another death to occur!”
“Don’t do it, Riddhima! Just leave from here. You don’t need to think about me,” Vihaan shouted.
“Shut up you useless moron!” Ajay rammed his gun hardly with his head.
Vihaan felt an excruciating pain through his head. Dizziness engulfed him and he stumbled to the ground. However, he had still not lost his consciousness.
“Don’t do anything to him! I’ll do as you say,” Riddhima wailed in desperation.
With his spinning head still lying against the floor, Vihaan rose his eyes to glance at Riddhima. He was no one to her and in fact, he had wronged her. But still she was worried for him and trying to save his life.
Pangs of guilt hit him.
But whatever he had done, he hadn’t done for a selfish reason. He had his own helplessness, and if only he’d be able to explain that to her…
“That’s what I thought,” Ajay’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Yash, tie her up.”
Hesitant, Yash just simply looked on.
“Didn’t you hear me out, you nincompooop? Go and tie her up!”
“But this is wrong. I can’t hurt Riddhima…” Yash slowly said.
“Because you love her?” Ajay said sarcastically. “But remember young lad, you can’t love her more than me! We are doing all this to protect her from Chang, isn’t it?”
Yash nodded resignedly and got hold of the ropes from the drawer. He tied Riddhima securely to the chair, his eyes painfully peering down at her.
“I am sorry. I didn’t want to do all this…”
Riddhima tossed her head away, not wanting to look at his wretched face anymore. She wanted to say so much more, but now she was extremely tired and she didn’t want to waste her energy arguing with him.
“Well done, Yash!” Ajay’s eyes gleamed. “Now let us exchange our places. You keep Vihaan on gunpoint, while I’ll deal with Riddhima myself.”
Riddhima shuddered as she heard this. Her father was a monster. What would he do now?
Her eyes widened in shock when he brought a crystal pendulum before her. She understood what was going on in that wicked mind of his. He was planning to hynotize her!
As a psychiatrist, she did have to use hypnosis on her patients very few times as part of the treatment.
But her father was doing it to gain control of her mind! No, she wouldn’t let him play with her anymore!
Ajay knelt down in front of her. He knew that she had understood about what was going to happen with her.
“You know much more than you actually need to,” he muttered. “And now, I’ve no option left other than making you forget about all this fiasco.”
He tried caressing her face but she flinched.
“You always had a sensitive mind since childhood, Riddhima. Whenever any unbearable stress falls upon your mind, all your memories related to that stressful event get conveniently washed away. And this has happened with you not once, but TWICE.
“Remember many years back, me, Uma and you had gone to the jungle for a mini trekking trip? All I wanted was to spend a good day with my family. But Chang….he came from nowhere and killed Uma right in front of our eyes. I tried to save her, but she died instantly…”
Riddhima was aghast to hear this. She had witnessed her own mother’s murder as a child? But why couldn’t she remember anything related to that? In fact, all she could recollect was her father telling her that her mom was no more in this world.
Getting emotional, Ajay continued. “I was broken beyond repair. But you, Riddhima, in spite of being a witness to that horrendous incident, had forgotten everything.
But still, some part of that incident lay hidden in your subconscious mind. That’s the reason why you have such a strong phobia of jungles. Because that’s the very place where you lost your mother as an innocent child.
“The same thing happened when Vansh died. You hadn’t seen him die with your own eyes. But you were so incredibly attached to him, that the very news of his death sent you in a frenzy initially, and later on, you forgot about him too.
“Both the times, your amnesia happened imvoluntarily. But now, it will be voluntarily carried upon you by me.”
Riddhima squeezed her eyes shut to avoid looking at the pendulum, and grasped the armrests of the chair for support.
“I will hypnotize you and cause all the unwanted memories to repress. You have to cooperate with me Riddhima. Or…” Ajay spoke in a dangerous tone. “Vihaan may end up losing his life even.”
Riddhima opened her eyes with a jerk and saw Vihaan. He was still buckling up with a severe bout of headache. But despite that he had heard every single word Ajay had said and he was determined to not let him win in his evil endeavours.
“No, don’t listen to him, Riddhima. You’ve already lost enough in your life, you can’t lose this last chance to get your culprits punished. If you forget everything, then how’d you get justice for all those lost lives? You don’t need to give a damn about me. After what I did with you, I deserve to die! But just get away from here. Please!”
Ajay noticed Riddhima’s changing expression. He decided to play another master stroke to get her to follow his command.
“Look at him carefully. He is not Vihaan. He is Vansh, your Vansh! You love him so much, he means the entire world to you. You don’t want him to die, right?”
Vihaan screamed, “No, he’s playing with your mind! I am not Vansh. I am Vihaan, a conman for whom only money means everything! I betrayed you and made a mockery of your emotions. I sold myself for some meagre money!”
“Shut this idiot up!” Ajay said irritatedly.
Like an obedient dog, Yash got a masking tape and pasted it on Vihaan’s mouth.
Vihaan struggled to speak something, but all that he could do was to make struggling noises.
Ajay sat next to Riddhima whose were still stuck on Vihaan.
He spoke slowly, enunciating upon each and every word. “He is your Vansh only. Already, you’ve lost your Vansh so many times. You don’t want to lose him again, do you? If you want him to get saved, look at this pendulum.”
The tears that had almost dried up, began streaming down her face once again. Accepting defeat, she diverted her gaze to the pendulum dangling in front of her.
Vihaan shut his eyes realizing that everything was over now. Ajay was an expert at manipulation and he had won.
Ajay swung the pendulum to and fro, with Riddhima’s eyes following it wherever it went.
Carefully scrutinizing her face and keeping his tone steady and deep, he went on.
“This pendulum holds the key to your good future. You will be looking only at it… You will do only that which I will ask you to do… You will obey me… Repeat after me.”
“I will obey you,” she replied. It seemed as if she was spellbound. Like a robot, she just kept swinging her eyes from side to side, while the rest of her body lay motionless.
“You don’t know who Vansh is.”
“I don’t know who Vansh is.”
“You never met him.”
“I never met him.”
“You never loved him.”
“I never loved him.”
“You never even heard about him.”
“I never even heard about him.”
“Your father, Ajay is a good person. He loves you. And you love him too.”
“My father is a good person. He loves me. I love him.”
“You don’t remember who Vihaan is. Right?”
“Right.”
“Now keep looking at the pendulum. You are slowly coming out of your trance. You are coming back to this world…”
He brought the pendulum to a complete stop. Waking up from her animated state, Riddhima looked around her in a confused manner.
“Papa, why am I here? Why did you tie me up with ropes?” she began getting worried.
“Relax sweetie. Everything is fine, everything is under control. You trust me right?” Ajay reassured her.
“Of course. You are the only person whom I trust,” she replied with a smile.
“Hi Yash!” she said when she spotted him a distance away.
Next, her eyes travelled to Vihaan, who had a tape plastered over his mouth.
“Who is he?” She pointed a finger at him.
Ajay was satisfied with her question. She could not recognize Vihaan, which meant that she had forgotten about him as well as Vansh even.
“He is a conman who was trying to swindle some money from you. But Yash and I saved you from his wicked deeds.” He paused midway when a sudden doubt erupted in his mind. He couldn’t afford to take risks. Not at this stage at least.
“Do you know who is VANSH?” he asked carefully.
“Vansh…who is this? I don’t know this person. In fact, I’m hearing this name for the first time,” she said disinterestedly. “Can you untie me please?”
After hearing her response, Ajay was completely sure about the success of his hypnotism. Thanking his good luck, he separated the ropes away from her.
All of a sudden, Riddhima pushed Ajay causing him to tumble down. At the same time, she flung the loosened rope over Yash, making his gun fall from his hand. Seizing the opportunity, Vihaan quickly got onto his feet and wrapped his arm around Yash’s neck, holding him tight.
All of this happened so quickly and unexpectedly, that both Ajay and Yash had no time to even respond.
“You were hypnotized, then how come…?” Ajay asked in absolute shock.
“Mr. Sareen, you should have realized that you are dealing with a psychiatrist yourself. If I know how to hypnotize my patients, I also know to save myself from getting hypnotized too!” she snarled. “You fooled me not once but twice. And I wasn’t going to get played by you for the third time.”
Using the ropes, Vihaan tied up both Yash and Ajay together and pushed them into a corner.
“I’ll call the police now,” he said taking out his phone.
“You don’t need to do that. Before coming here, I had informed Seher to bring the police along. She must be on the way.”
Just as she said that, the shrill voice of the police siren began ringing in the air. Soon, the loud marching of steps sounded and the police arrived upon the scene within a few seconds.
Without speaking any further words, the grim looking officers handcuffed both Yash and Ajay. They were about to take them away, when Riddhima stopped them.
“Wait. I have an important question to ask you Doctor…oops sorry, Mr. Sareen. I wouldn’t want to belittle the noble title of a doctor by calling you one. A doctor is supposed to save lives, not take them.” She took a deep breath trying to control her temper. “Tell me where is Sia?”
“I don’t know…” he mumbled blankly.
Losing her patience, she yelled at him. “Stop lying! Sia has been missing since that house caught fire. You and Chang were the ones behind that incident. Then how come you don’t know what happened to Sia?”
Ajay let out a sigh as realization dawned upon him that everything was over. There was no use of hiding any more things.
“That night, when Chang’s goons went to burn that house, Sia had caught them red-handed. She was about to scream and call out for help. So…”
“So what? Did they kill her too?” Riddhima asked dreadfully.
“No. I don’t exactly know what they did with her, but I do remember them telling me that they sold her off into flesh trade.”
Riddhima just stared at him trying to process this horrible piece of information. Her father, the person whom she had always looked upto since her childhood was not a human. He wasn’t a human!
“H-how easily you uttered that Sia was sold off into prostitution! Do you even know what it means? D-do you?” She choked upon her own words, the feeling of disgust killing her from inside. “You had a freaking daughter yourself! How could you do this with some other girl?”
“I didn’t know that they’d end up doing something like this. I didn’t want things to turn out in this way…” Ajay tried to plead.
“You all worse than monsters! Even hellfire would be a lesser punishment for you!” Saying that, she broke down.
She didn’t know why she was crying. Was it because of being betrayed by her own people, because of never getting Vansh back, or because an innocent girl was thrown into a dungeon for no fault of hers? Or was it because she had never expected her father to be so devilish, and she’d have to live with this guilt forever?
Ajay sadly said, “Maybe, I am a devil. But whatever I did, it was to protect you from Chang. As a father, I had to save your life!”
“To protect me from Chang, you killed so many people. Wouldn’t it have been better that you killed me instead?” she continued sobbing.
“Never! You are my daughter. I want to see you live at least a hundred years!” With his welled up eyes, he said, “You might hate me for all my crimes, but I really love you.” He gave her a last warning. “The danger is not over yet. Chang will do anything and can stoop to any level to take that land from you. You must…”
“No need to show these fake concerns. I can take care of myself,” she rudely said.
The police took him away, while she looked on. At this point, she didn’t even know what to feel.
Handcuffs dangling from both his wrists, Yash neared her. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have assisted Ajay Uncle in killing Vansh. But…but I always loved you since my teenage years. And when I saw you embarking upon a relationship with Vansh, I…I just couldn’t control my jealousy. I had become so blind, that I even lost the difference between right and wrong.”
“Don’t you dare refer your nasty feelings as love!” She blasted him off. “Love is supposed to be the purest and the most beautiful feeling in the world. Love makes a person better. But look at you, what you’ve become!
Love is what I and Vansh had between us. Even though I don’t remember anything about him, yet he has a place in my heart. And he will always have…”
The police took away both the culprits while Riddhima and Vihaan looked on.
Riddhima placed her hand on the left side of her chest. Yes, Vansh was there. He was there in her, beside her and with her.
Regretting his actions, Vihaan walked towards Riddhima wanting to apologize to her. But he was interrupted from doing so when Seher and Jeh made their appearance.
Finally finding a genuine loved one in front of her, Riddhima hugged her friend and wept.
Seher caressed her hair. “It’s all okay. Just relax. I know that a lot of bad things happened with you, but now only good will enter your life.”
Her glance landed on Vihaan and she almost began to charge at him. But Riddhima held her back.
“Don’t stop me! This blo*dy fraudster, I won’t leave him today.”
“Leave him. Just let him be,” said Riddhima gloomily. “With what rights can I question him when my own people wronged me?
‘Humein toh apnone loota, ghairon me kahan dum tha
Hamari kashti toh wahan doobi jahan paani kam tha…’ “
Vihaan tried to approach her but she showed her his palm. “Don’t even dare come near me!” she sternly said.
“Okay, I won’t. I know that I’m your culprit. But trust me, I had no idea that Mr. Sareen and Yash were brutal murderers…”
“You know what, I am not even a least interested in your worthless explanations. You called me what…crazy right? Yes, I am crazy for Vansh, and I’ve no shame in accepting that. But do you have the guts to accept your weakness for money?” In her quivering voice, she continued. “Under the guise of being Vansh, you played with my feelings and did all those things with me? You know what, I don’t even want to see your face!”
“Don’t go…without punishing me,” said Vihaan hanging his head down. “Please punish me Riddhima. I deserve it.”
“You aren’t worthy of my punishment even,” she spat. “Just…just leave. Before I…”
“Okay, I will leave. But at least let me help you in looking for Sia,” said Vihaan earning a surprised look from Riddhima. “I have a few contacts who can…”
“Keep your fake sympathy or your penance, whatever it is, to yourself. Sia is Vansh’s sister and I will bring her back home safe and sound. Who are you to her, huh?” Riddhima rebuffed him.
“No one. But I really want to do this…”
“This rascal is trying to get into your good books by speaking such buttery lines. Don’t believe a word that he says. Once a betrayer, always a betrayer.”
With that, Seher pulled Riddhima out into the open, while Vihaan just remained still, with a dejected expression on his face.
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“Don’t you think you were way too lenient with that leech?” Seher raised the question.
“Please, I don’t want to talk about him,” said an irritated Riddhima. “My prime focus as of now is to find Sia. God knows, where she might be.”
Jeh who was driving the car, let out a chuckle. “Frankly speaking Riddhima, your life has turned into nothing but a fast-paced, thrilling movie! Haha!”
Seher gasped at what her boyfriend just said. “Jeh! How can you be so insensitive?”
“I’m sorry. I was just trying to lighten the serious atmosphere over here.”
“And you do realize that it was an extremely bad attempt?” Turning towards her friend sitting in the backseat, Seher began apologizing on Jeh’s behalf. “He can be incredibly stupid at times.”
“It is okay. I didn’t mind much. Besides, Jeh has helped me so much. So the least that I can do is to ignore these petty things in gratitude.”
“Don’t have even an ounce of misunderstanding that I did all this for you.” Jeh took Seher’s hand in his, who was sitting right beside him. “I did all this for her, the love of my life.” He kissed the back of her hand.
Seher retreated. This wasn’t the time to do romance and especially not in front of Riddhima who was still reeling in the aftermath of all the incidents that took place today. But who’d explain this to her stupid, insensitive boyfriend?
“Don’t ever leave this man. He loves you to death. And not everyone is lucky to find love in this heartless world,” said Riddhima with distantness in her voice.
Jeh said, “That Yash looks so dumb outwardly, but he was damn cunning from inside. He was the one who put that idea of camping in the jungle in my mind. And like a puppet, I agreed to him.”
He brought the car to a complete halt.
“Finally, we are at Neeti Madam’s place. I doubt if that witch will open her mouth even.”
“She has to. She has no other option left,” said Riddhima determinedly.
They were still inside the car when they saw Neeti sneak out of her house. Jeh’s car was hidden from her sight so she obviously didn’t catch the trio snooping upon her. She got into her car and revved up the engine.
“Follow her,” Riddhima ordered him.
Jeh readily took off his own car and ran closely behind Neeti’s car.
“I wonder where she is going off to at this hour of time,” he mumbled to himself.
Riddhima glanced at her watch which showed the time to be 11PM. Was Neeti trying to run away?
After a drive of fifteen minutes or so, Neeti parked her car by a building.
“LITTLE ANGEL’S ORPHANAGE” The board hanging outside read.
“What is she doing at an orphanage? Is Sia here by any chance?” Riddhima wondered out aloud.
The curiosity inside her became uncontrollable. She had had enough of this cat and mouse game. Now it was time to confront her.
When Neeti saw Riddhima, Seher and Jeh surround her all of a sudden, all colour drained from her face.
“W-what are…y-you people…d-doing here?” she stuttered.
“We should be asking that question to you, Neeti,” Riddhima said placing her hands akimbo. “But before that, I want to give you an important news. Yash and Mr. Sareen have been arrested by the police for their crimes.”
“W-what? Yash and Ajay Uncle? Why though?” she asked looking aghast.
“Oh come on, enough of your drama, Miss Drama Queen,” said Jeh coolly. “We all know that you were an equal accomplice in their crimes. Unfortunately, you are a woman and the police can’t arrest you at night according to the Indian law. But tomorrow morning, be ready to get jailed!”
“Look, I really don’t understand what you guys are talking about. As far as I know, I’ve done nothing that can get me arrested,” remarked Neeti.
“Yash and Ajay Uncle violently killed Vansh. Now don’t tell me you didn’t know that,” said Seher.
Neeti’s expression changed into as if a bomb had blasted over her. “Oh my God! I had no idea. I knew something was cooking between the both men behind my back, but I didn’t know that they’d stoop so low!”
“So you are telling me that you didn’t know about all this? You expect me to believe you after you hid about Vansh and my amnesia from me?” Riddhima fumed.
Neeti rubbed her forehead. “I agree I hid all that from you. But Ajay Uncle had convinced me to do so for your own betterment. I knew about your relation with Vansh and how you lost your memories after his death. But I didn’t know that Yash and Uncle had killed them. Had I known that, I would have never supported them…”
“But you knew about the game plan involving Vansh’s doppelganger, Vihaan, in order to make me look mad?”
“Yes, I knew that,” said Neeti softly. “I knew about it all along. But that’s the only thing that was known to me. Nothing else.”
“And how much money did my biological father pay you to do this drama?” taunted Riddhima.
Neeti felt hurt. “Money? Do you think I did that for money? I did that for you! Uncle wanted to protect you from Chang, and I wanted to do the same! The only thing being I also wanted to protect you from your painful past!”
Riddhima clapped her hands sarcastically. “What an apt way to defend your wrongdoings! Taking advantage of my amnesia, you lied to me and hid stuff from me.”
Neeti started tearing up. “I’m sorry, Riddhima. I didn’t want to hurt you. But Ajay Uncle had manipulated me in such a devious way, that I couldn’t stop myself from believing each and every word he said. I didn’t know I was helping two murderers! As far as Yash is concerned, I knew about his unrequited love for you, but I didn’t know that he’d cross all limits like this.”
“Cut all the crap and tell me where is Sia?” Riddhima interjected.
“Who is Sia? I don’t know about her.”
Seher said, “She was Vansh’s sister who got kidnapped and is missing since more than a year. We thought you must be having some idea about her. Isn’t that why you are here at the orphanage?”
Neeti started panicking. “No, that’s not the reason why I am here.”
“What is it?” Riddhima cornered her.
“Nothing…”
“If it is nothing, then why is there sweat on your forehead? Why are you not meeting my eye while talking? Why is your breathing becoming laboured?” Riddhima gave her a threatening look. “What is it that you are hiding from me?”
“You better open your mouth. Or the police might knock at your door tomorrow morning,” added in Jeh.
That was the last straw for Neeti. She couldn’t hold herself up any longer.
“I can’t stay with this guilt anymore. I just can’t!”
“Stop beating around the bush!” Riddhima exclaimed.
Neeti started off, “You loved Vansh a lot. He was your whole life, Riddhima. So when the news of his death reached you, you completely zoned out. You were in a semi-conscious state for one whole week.
And that is when we got to know that….”
“That what?” asked an impatient Riddhima.
“You were seven months pregnant.”
Riddhima felt the sky crashing down upon her. She was pregnant? With Vansh’s child?
“The doctor said that it wasn’t possible for you to continue your pregnancy in that mentally vulnerable state. So, the baby was prematurely delivered. Ajay Uncle was against the idea of bringing the baby back home. So instead…”
Neeti broke into sobs and left her sentence hanging in air. But Riddhima understood what it meant.
Her child. Vansh’s child. Their child. It was alive. Since the past one year. But she had no idea about it’s existence.
Losing her balance, she fell on the rocky pavement. She hurt herself, and the stones pierced her skin. But she didn’t care. She just didn’t care.
She buried her face in her hands. She cried. She shouted. Her fingers tugged at her hair. But nothing seemed to work. Nothing seemed to lessen the enormous anguish and the burst of emotions she felt at this time.
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Hello everyone! That is it for today guys. Do comment.
Peace out!